Does someone know of an etymology for the word "sankIrna" as in sankirna gati...? What is its meaning? Also for khanda and misra. When a distinct word pancha is available, why khanda? Similarly for sapta vs misra and nava vs sankIrna.

One of the meanings (most common one , AFAIK) of sankIrNa is complex, complicated etc.

I have no idea why the names have been handed over like this over the generations. However, originally there
was no 7 tALa * 5 jAti system. Each of the suLAdi sapta tALa had only a fixed jAti ( eg: dhruva tALa meant
chaturashra dhruva, and tripuTa meant trishra tripuTa).

The 5 jAtis to the 7 tALas was a contribution of purandaradAsa only and not a development after his time. He systematized the tALas and clasiified the 7*5 jAtis. Of course the 5 in which he set alankAras came to be the default ones for each type as they are the ones taught and sung most often.

My thoughts on the names. tryaSra (triSra/ tiSra) and caturaSra need no explanation. khaNDa because it is tryaSra and half of caturaSra(khaNDa) joined. miSra because it is a conjoining (miSra) of tryaSra and caturaSra. And sankIrNa because it is a complex mix of khaNDa( which itself is a combination) and caturaSra.

so the word khanDa implies/hints-at "joining"? And the word miSra implies/hints-at "conjoining"? Can you please clarify? maybe with examples of usage of these words in other contexts with their meanings (if appplicable)

so the word khanDa implies/hints-at "joining"? And the word miSra implies/hints-at "conjoining"? Can you please clarify? maybe with examples of usage of these words in other contexts with their meanings (if appplicable)

Thanks
Arun

Apologies if my words were ambiguous/nebulous.
I had no intentions of implying different meanings for "joining" and "conjoining". khaNDa does not mean nor does it hint at "joining". khaNDa means a piece or fragment/part of the whole. miSra means mixture. It does not beg for an example as that is simply what it means.

The 5 jAtis to the 7 tALas was a contribution of purandaradAsa only and not a development after his time. He systematized the tALas and clasiified the 7*5 jAtis. Of course the 5 in which he set alankAras came to be the default ones for each type as they are the ones taught and sung most often.

I remember reading something to this effect in an article by Prof R Satyanarayana - Will try to get hold of that. There is always a chance that my memory is failing

It would be interesting to know why these names are used instead of the numbers which they represent, and why only for these three is this kind of name used, the other two having their normal names tisra and chatusra? Okay so misra makes sense... it is a combination of tisra and chatusra. How to link the other two?